PUBLIC ECONOMICS

The module introduces to the economic analysis of motivations, objectives, scope and instruments of public intervention, regarding both expenditure and tax policies

Basic knowledge of micro and macroeconomics

Knowledge and understanding: the student – through course attendance and interactive teaching – will gain a not formalized knowledge of public economics. He/she will understand the fundamental ideas in this area, the main policy instruments and the most important institutions. Applying knowledge and understanding: The module intends to provide an understanding of motivations and effects of public policies to enable a better design and management of these policies in a national and international context. These hard and soft competences will be developed and tested through a continuous interaction during the lectures and through the platform Luiss Learn, where multimedia contents will be regularly uploaded. Making judgements: The student’s ability of making critical and independent evaluation of the objectives and instrument of public policies will be developed by a critical evaluation of the results of policy instruments, making use in some case of empirical studies. These abilities will be verified in the final exam, where the student’s performance will be evaluated also in terms of his/her ability to provide a critical evaluation of his/her arguments Communication skills: The student will develop the ability to talk and write having an audience, keeping the audience interest alive and making sure that the message sent is clear and effective. This will be obtained through the interactive teaching and the possibility of participating to the interaction on Luiss Learn. Learning skills: By studying the public policy instruments and the analysis of the by suggested readings, the student learns to critically assess and, in case, to contribute to the design and management of public policies.

The course is divided in 4 sections: 1) scope and instruments of public policies 2) market failure and public expenditure 3) taxation: general principles 4) taxation in Italy

Rosen, H. S. e T. Gayer, 2018. Scienza delle finanze. McGraw-Hill (V edizione). Additional readings will be made available on Luiss Learn

Teaching methods will include traditional lectures, seminar presentations, class discussion and individual/group homework.

The assessment of a student takes place with traditional written exams and the evaluation of the student’s participation in seminar and classroom activities. The first test takes place towards the middle of the course and concerns the first part of the course. The test has a duration of 1h and is composed of two sections: in the first section, there is one essay-type question and in the second section there are 10 multiple-choice questions. The final grade is the average of the grades in the two sections. The second test takes place towards the end of the course. The test has a duration of 40m and is composed one essay-type question, whose subject is a topical issue in the political-economic debate on the role and nature of public intervention in society. The third test takes place at the end of the course and concerns the second part of the course. The test has the same structure as the first test. In the exam the student is required to show that he/she knows and understands the basic concepts of the subject, that he/she is able to critically evaluate the problems and the policies analysed and that he/she is able to illustrate his/her arguments with clarity, rigour and brevity. The first and third tests each have a weight of 30% of the final grade. The second test has a weight of 10% of the final grade. The evaluation of the performance in the seminar and classroom discussion has a weight of 30% of the final grade. The exam for non-attending students is made of three parts, each identical to the three tests for attending students. The first and third parts each have a weight of 40% of the final grade, while the second part has a weight of 20% of the final grade.

Upon request